


Tara in Sunnydale High Series

by SosaLola



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-09-27 07:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9984035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SosaLola/pseuds/SosaLola
Summary: What if Tara moved to Sunnydale the same day Buffy did? She's a new student at Sunnydale High.





	1. New Girl

She was a new girl in school, but nobody looked at her twice.

Everybody was more interested in the other new girl, another blonde but with a more interesting personality and wardrobe.

Her brother was interesting enough to make the football team on his first day. “Never speak to me,” he had threatened in the car this morning. “Don’t even breathe the same air as me. If I catch you in the same room, I’ll break every bone in your body.” She was more than pleased to oblige.

A couple of days later and the other new girl had already made friends. She, on the other hand, was nothing but an insignificant speck.

“Hey, you’re blocking the door.” Cordelia, most popular girl in school, noticed her again.

She moved out of the way quickly.

Cordelia walked into the classroom, striking a pose in her amazing outfit and looking her up and down. “Clara, was it? Ease up on the carbs and maybe next time people could squeeze in.” Her clique cackled, strutting after her to their seats.

“It’s Tara,” she whispered to no one and sat alone on the empty chair at the corner.


	2. Invisible

 

Tara noticed her when no one did. She noticed her raised hand in class every time the teacher picked someone else to answer, but never her. She noticed her when the invitations to Lucy Martin’s Sweet Sixteen were handed out to everybody in the tenth grade, but not to her. She noticed her trying to joke with Cordelia and her friends but was given the brush off.

The girl wanted to blend in with the popular crowd so desperately that everywhere they went, she was already there. Like today in the cafeteria, she was already sitting at the popular table, waiting for the popular clique to show up. Her face fell when she noticed Cordelia and the others passing the cafeteria, not even sparing her a glance.

All that time, warming up their seats to seek their approval for nothing.

Tara, another member of the invisible club, walked over towards the girl. “Is this seat taken?”

The girl grimaced up at her. “Do you see anyone sitting here?”

“Good.” Tara placed her tray on the table. “They’re serving Soylent Green today. Not sure I’m brave enough to try this alone?”

A suspicious stare. “Why are you talking to me?”

“I like your blouse.” The blouse was actually plain, but it was the only excuse that popped into Tara’s head.

The girl gave a sheepish grin. “Yeah?” She glanced at Tara’s outfit. “Yours is cool, too.”

“Thanks. I’m Tara.” She extended a hand.

The girl shook it right away. “Marcie.” She looked down at her plate. “So, I guess this is the part where we dig in. Do we dare?”

Tara shrugged. “It’s either that or suffering through the alumni lecture on an empty stomach.”

They picked up their forks, stared skeptically at the green slop and then swiftly took a scoop into their mouths.

“It’s not bad.”  


	3. Amy's Mom

 

 

The taste of blood filled Tara’s mouth from gnawing on the inside of her cheek all day. She had dropped her lunch on the cafeteria floor, tripped on her shoes and slammed into everybody at school. Cordelia had dubbed her ‘Steve Urkel’ and unfortunately it seemed the nickname would stick for the next three years.

She was a nervous wreck, but she couldn’t help it. Not after what Marcie had told her this morning.

Her heart skipped a beat when she caught Amy Madison sitting outside the school.

 _“Have you heard the scoop on Amy’s mom_?” Marcie had told her all about Amy’s mother, the supposedly evil witch who had abused Amy for years.

An evil witch.

Tara chewed on her lips, her father’s voice echoed in her head. The magical powers she and her mother had emanated from a demon heritage that manifested itself in the women in her family when they turned twenty.

Tara wondered if Amy’s mother was related to them somehow. She should have stayed close to the family where she could be watched to keep the demon in her locked away.

This was how Tara’s mother didn’t turn into an evil demon. This was how Tara would prevent herself from becoming a demon when she hit twenty.

“Do you want something?”

Tara startled. Amy was looking directly at her.

Tara rapidly shook her head. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to… “

“It’s okay.” Amy smiled, looking at someone behind Tara. She carried her backpack and sprinted to hug a man who had just parked his car. Tara assumed it was her father.

He appeared nice and tender. Tara didn’t remember her own father smiling at her like that. But Amy’s dad had abandoned his family which enabled the demon to control his ex-wife. Tara’s father protected her and her mother, and Tara loved him for it.


	4. A Virgin

 

 

Tara didn’t want to go to the Bronze that night. She wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for Marcie waiting for her there. Her best friend was still fragile about being unnoticed, so if Tara stood her up, she wouldn’t take it well.

Using her long hair to cover up her right eye, Tara faltered through the crowded club, gaze fleeting around frantically searching for her friend.

“Tara! Over here!” Marcie waved for her, perched on a table near the coffee bar.

“No chairs?” Tara hated how high pitched she sounded.

“Be glad I found a table.” Marcie helped her up on the table, lifting an eyebrow at the weird hairdo.  

Tara was about to distract her by commenting on the music when her whole body went stiff. Blayne and a couple of boys were lounging at the bar. He was talking about the girls he ‘scored’ with, eight girls… eight girls including Tara. She was trembling hard and trying desperately not to throw up.  

Marcie noticed her distress, reaching with a hand to pull away her hair and revealing a big purple swollen eye. “What happened?” she exclaimed in horror.

“My brother,” Tara choked out. “Blayne was spreading a rumor about… about us…” she couldn’t say more through the sobs that rocked her body.  

“He lied about you sleeping with him.” Marcie had to know it was a lie, Tara thought. Her friend knew Tara would never take a huge step like this without telling her.

“Donny was so angry.” Her mind went back to the horrible memory. Her parents were out, it was just her and Donny in the house. He had dragged her by the hair to his room, beat her up and called her names. She had begged him, yelled that it never happened. He hadn’t believed her. He never did.

Marcie pulled her into a hug and placed a chaste kiss on her eye. Tara cried hard, her raw tears spilling on her friend’s shoulder.  

Finally, Marcie pushed her back gently and slipped to the floor, making her way towards Blayne. Tara watched through eyes fogged with tears in fright. What the hell was Marcie doing?

“Hey!” Marcie snapped at the boy. He didn’t respond. Marcie had this persisting problem of not being seen. No one saw her but Tara.  Her friend was determined to be noticed tonight, so she pulled the boy off his chair and onto the floor.

“What the hell, bitch!” he barked at her from his place on the ground.

“Better watch out because Donny Maclay is on his way to kick your ass.” She quirked up an eyebrow. “You know Donny: big guy, captain of the football team? That Donny. He didn’t like that you slept with his sister.”

Blayne squirmed, fretfully looking around the club. “What? I never slept with his sister.”

“Rumors say you have.”

“No, never happened. I… I slept with Tina. Not Tara. Tina!”

Marcie nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. “So, you never slept with Tara Maclay?”

“Never. I don’t even know her.”

“As long as that’s clear.” She smirked. “And by the way, Chyrl wants you to stop stalking her. She said if she caught you peering through her bedroom window again, she’ll get her big sister’s college boyfriend to beat the crap out of you.”

“Huh? What?” Blayne looked like he was about to wet his pants.  

“Interesting turn of events.” Xander Harris, a boy in Tara’s poetry class, stood behind Marcie with a huge grin. “Seems that old Blayne here is nothing but a big lying virgin.”

Blayne shook a threatening finger at him. “Shut up, geek!”

Xander bumped his fist in the air and chanted, “Virgin, virgin, virgin!” The whole club chorused along, always ready for opportunities to inflict humiliation on anyone.

Marcie squeezed herself out of the forming crowd and trotted towards Tara, squealing. “Oh my God.” She was literally skipping. “Did you see me? I was awesome, wasn’t I awesome?”

Tara smiled at her in gratitude. “You’re always awesome.”  

Marcie grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the club. “Let’s go get a burger. My heart rate is all over the place.”  


	5. Smartest Kid in Class

 

 

Owen Thurman was engrossed in an interesting discussion with Ms. Anderson over Classicism vs Romanticism. Every girl in class was fawning over him, including Tara’s best friend.

Marcie heaved a dreamy sigh, her head almost resting on Tara’s shoulder. “Look at him go. He’s so smart and cute.”

Tara didn’t know much about Owen. He hardly talked to anyone, which was understandably inevitable with his nose always stuck in a book.  He was your usual quiet, mysterious type, therefore every girl’s type, but not Tara’s.

“Too bad I’ve no shot with him,” Marcie lamented, shooting daggers at Cordelia who was sitting next to Owen. Cordelia was deliberately placing her pen on Owen’s side of the desk so he would hand it to her later, which would lead to possible hand touch-age. 

“Seriously, he’s like the smartest kid in class,” Marcie gushed when Owen finished his argument with a clever rhetorical question.

Owen? Smartest kid in class? He wished.

“Ms. Anderson, I have a different approach to the discussion.”

“What is it, Miss Rosenberg?”

Tara smiled despite herself when Willow Rosenberg started presenting her argument. Her heartbeat raced in her chest and suddenly the classroom was burning hot. Willow was amazing. Tara could listen to her talk all day. One day, she hoped she’d muster the courage to say hi to her. The thought alone was enough to make her duck her head, and her long hair fell to hide her flushed face.

 

 


End file.
